On larger aircraft, when a pilot operates a device to actuate various control surfaces on the aircraft he is actually initiating action on two devices. His control column movement initiates the actuation of powered units that furnish the power needed to move the control surfaces, and it also actuates feel devices that resist movement of the control column to give the pilot the feel of the movement. One well-known means for providing the feel device calls for the combination of hydraulic actuators and a spring arrangement. The two units work together. For normal take-off and landings, the feel force must be low enough to allow one handed control operation. The minimum feel force that can be produced is determined by the minimum hydraulic pressure required in the hydraulic actuators, to overcome friction in the actuators, and the force provided by the spring mechanism. The spring force acts as the only source of control feel in the event of hydraulic system failure; so it must be sufficiently large to provide acceptable feel forces under those failure conditions. This presents a problem under normal conditions as the lowest practical hydraulic pressure in the hydraulic feel actuators when combined with the spring pressure, which spring pressure must be high enough for hydraulic failure conditions, creates too high a feel force during take-off and landings. In the past this has been solved by either adding additional hydraulic actuator redundancy and eliminating the spring arrangement or by adding a hydraulic actuator to restrain the spring force during normal operations and releasing it in the event of hydraulic actuator system failures. It was found that a simpler solution could be used that additionally would effect a weight savings.